Friday, March 12, 2010

While most people seem content to create low-maintenance Facebook groups and pages for the objects of their revulsion, that wasn’t enough for Halifax student Vincenzo Ravina.

When he first noticed Crocs on a classmate’s feet, he didn’t like them, but didn’t think much beyond that. As the shoes became more popular, however, his passing distaste blossomed into something stronger.

He registered the domain ihatecrocs.com as a test, he says. “I was just kind of looking for validation in me thinking that I’m the sane one.”

It didn’t take long before traffic to the site exploded. He had created a popular forum for trashing the shoes, and sold more than 1,000 “I Hate Crocs” T-shirts.

Crocs have since declined in popularity and so, in turn, has Mr. Ravina’s passionate opposition to them. But he still remembers what fuelled the site at the peak of its popularity.

“With disliking things, people get more worked up than when they do like things,” he says. “It’s more antagonistic. People feel more encouraged to kind of fight for their opinion.”

I am not a quote-machine. I am more used to being on the question-asking side of interviews rather than the question answering side. SEE: Vincenzo Ravina Dot Com.